1. Field of the Invention
An air conditioner and method of operating the same, and more particularly, an air conditioner that controls an operation according to ambient noise and a method of operating the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Air conditioners regulate an indoor temperature and purify indoor air by blowing cold or warm air in a room, with the purpose of providing a more comfortable environment. Typically, an air conditioner includes an indoor unit consisting of a heat exchanger, and an outdoor unit consisting of a compressor and a heat exchanger for supplying refrigerant to the indoor unit.
This air conditioner is controlled separately for the indoor unit and the outdoor unit, and operates by controlling the power supply to the compressor or to the heat exchanger. Also, at least one indoor unit may be connected to the outdoor unit, and refrigerant is supplied to the indoor unit to operate the air conditioner in a cooling mode or a heating mode depending.
In the air conditioner, the outdoor unit and the indoor unit are connected to a refrigerant pipe, and refrigerant compressed by the compressor of the outdoor unit is supplied to the heat exchanger of the indoor unit, heat-exchanged in the heat exchanger of the indoor unit, and then drawn into the compressor of the outdoor unit via the refrigerant pipe. Accordingly, cold and warm air is blown into the room by heat transfer using refrigerant.
During operation of the outdoor unit, the air conditioner makes noise from operating the outdoor unit fan as well as the compressor. This is problematic, especially at night.
Conventionally, night-time low noise operation is performed after a certain period of time after the temperature peak, with the goal of reducing noise by decreasing the rotation speed of the outdoor unit fan. But, the nighttime low noise operation has little noise reduction effect since it only adjusts the speed of the outdoor unit fan. Moreover, the outdoor unit fan runs regardless of the surroundings since the operational settings are based only on the peak temperature, and it can be adapted for cooling operation only, but not for heating operation.
The present invention provides a solution for performing low noise operation according to the surroundings regardless of the operation mode.